Streamlining Site

Dear Forum Supporters,

I have been experiencing slow loading times on my websites and so I contacted my hosting company for support. They kindly wrote back with some suggestions for my site, but unfortunately I am not sure how to proceed. I am hoping you will either be able to help me or direct me somewhere I can find help.

Here are some examples of the help from hosts:

Make fewer HTTP requests
This page has 17 external Javascript scripts. Try combining them into one.
This page has 10 external stylesheets. Try combining them into one.
This page has 26 external background images. Try combining them with CSS sprites.
Decreasing the number of components on a page reduces the number of HTTP requests required to render the page, resulting in faster page loads. Some ways to reduce the number of components include: combine files, combine multiple scripts into one script, combine multiple CSS files into one style sheet, and use CSS Sprites and image maps. Add Expires headers
There are 64 static components without a far-future expiration date.

I’m not sure how to make these items ‘local’ or combine scripts, and I’m not sure what to do with items ‘without a far-future expiration date’.

Put JavaScript at bottom

There are 8 JavaScript scripts found in the head of the document JavaScript scripts block parallel downloads; that is, when a script is downloading, the browser will not start any other downloads. To help the page load faster, move scripts to the bottom of the page if they are deferrable.

When using wordpress, how do I reorganise the items in the head? I have been looking through the editor (under appearance) for the header but I’m not sure which bits I can move. How do I learn?

Thank you in advance for your help,

Max